The field of this disclosure relates generally to a tailgate for a vehicle having a containment bed, and particularly, to a tailgate functioning as a shoveling apparatus for holding material from the containment bed.
Roadway surfaces require maintenance to repair wear and tear resulting from traffic, weather, and other factors. These roadways are typically repaired using asphalt, gravel, or other similar materials. It has long been common practice to load the repair material onto a truck bed, drive the truck to the location, and disperse a quantity of the repair material from the truck bed onto the ground either by using a worker with a shovel standing on or near the containment bed to move the repair material or by using a device to dispense quantities of repair material onto the ground. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,402 of Jones describes a material containment bed having a material distribution opening and a patching pan rotatably and detachably mounted below the material containment bed for receiving the material through the distribution opening. Once the material is removed from the patching pan, the pan is rotated back to a storage position underneath the truck to allow the truck to move freely. Other examples of similar or related apparatuses or attachments for unloading material from a containment bed may be found in the prior art.
The present inventor has recognized various disadvantages with currently available apparatuses and methods for repairing road surfaces, including: having a worker manually remove material from the back of a containment bed, which requires considerable physical exertion by the worker that may result in back problems or repetitive-stress injuries; requiring the worker to stand inside, near, or on the walls of the containment bed, which may pose an increased risk of injury, such as injury from falling; and requiring the worker to stand in a containment bed and work with heated mixtures, which may lead to an increased susceptibility of burn injuries.
The present inventor has also recognized that currently available devices do not provide for a fine control of the amount of material that is removed from the containment bed. Typical devices receive a largely uncontrolled amount of material from the containment bed and lack a mechanism for easily returning any unused material back into the containment bed for future use. Additionally, the present inventor has recognized that current devices usually require significant modifications to the vehicle body or require additional space on the vehicle for mounting, thereby compromising the versatility of the vehicle.
The present inventor has identified a need for a tailgate shoveling apparatus that provides relatively safe and easy access to a material contained in a containment bed without requiring significant modifications to a vehicle body or compromising vehicle versatility. The present inventor has also identified a need for a shoveling platform that contains a portion of a material from a containment bed and lowers such a portion to a comfortable shoveling height, thereby reducing injury risk and providing safe access to the material. Additionally, the inventor has identified a need for a shoveling platform that facilitates conserving material and returning unused material back into the containment bed for future use.